


The Black Hand of Satan

by Heikitsune25



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles X
Genre: Action, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 21:23:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11471940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heikitsune25/pseuds/Heikitsune25
Summary: The past is just that. The past. It is meant to be put behind us. Meant to gather dust in the back caverns of our minds. But it is never forgotten. Oh, no. The past is a stubborn, cruel mistress. She will hunt you down with all the guilt and all the nightmares in your history. So is it best to preserve the past or let it go?





	1. Moonlit Night

Days of X: The Black hand of Satan

Chapter one: Moonlit Night

"Ha….haa…."

Blue blood dripped form Fenrir's bruised body. It poured form his head forcing him to close his right eye. Making his already shaky vision more impaired. His clothes are in ribbons, his armor and jacket are riddled with bullet holes. Lin is unconscious. Behind him she is filled with bullets, bleeding out form her stomach form were shrapnel form a grenade had hit her. Elma, with her legs broken, and her right arm twisted, is next to her. Trying her best to take in much needed air. They are backed against a boulder in West part of Primordia, caught within a storm and between a horde of ganglion guns. Poor Tatsu is cowering behind the stone wall. Sacred, unable to doing anything.

Their weapons are scattered and broken. His knife is broken form protecting him form a grenade blast. His photon saber is smashed to pieces. And his assault rifle is out of ammo.

Elma's blades are a little better off. If only one of them not being broken in half is considered better. Her guns are fine with only one sub-machine gun filled with bullets. Only because she didn't even get a single shot in before she hit with a missile.

Lin's shield is the only thing still intact. Even if the girl herself is not.

"Keh ha ha ha! This is the white witch and her marry band of monsters!?" Jaden laugh.

Jaden, the BLADE who had sent out a distress signal, had a gun pointed at Fenrir. Along with the rest of the Ganglion thugs behind him. The rain seemed to only make that traitor's greasy black hair more disgusting as he sneered down at them. The blacked sky over Primordia fit Fenrir's desperate situation.

"Oh MAN!" Jaden cackled. "All it took was a fake ass distress call, a simple ambush and you guys are like fish in a barrel! That guy was right! You guys are easy when it comes to other people!"

A weak growl gurgled form Fenrir's throat. He continued to glare his enemies down, no matter how beaten he feels.

"But you know Fenny. I am sporting guy." Jaden taunted with his gun. "How about I give you a few seconds to do…something."

"Ha ha ha! Not that it would matter!" Jaden gaffed. "Even if I do put a bullet through your skulls, it's only shut down those walking washing machines! Hell I could blow my own arm off and all I would need to do is get some duct tape and put it back together!"

He smiled, his eyes gazing at Elma's and Lin's prone forms. "Speaking of, it really won't matter what I do to those two will it? I wonder if their mim's carpet's match the drapes."

Jaden couldn't help but laugh. This whole thing is utterly ridiculous. The Ganglion kicked their asses before, and that's when the humans were actually prepared for them. How the hell do these idiots think they can take them on when their whole race is shit out of luck and there's a few billions of Ganglion and only a million of humans. And Elma's dumdass team keeps going against them. Attacking their bases, taking those Man-non, and for what? They've barely even made a dent. All they've ever done was pissed them off and placed all of NLA in their crosshairs.

"It's nothing perso-ok it is." Jaden shrugged. "I've hated the fact that scrub like you somehow got top ranking in just a few weeks. Oh yeah…."

He pointed his gun back at the dead man's head. "You've got sixteen seconds left."

Fenrir thought of anything he could do to get the out of this. His knife is broken. His photon saber was shot out his hands. His arms and legs are in so much pain he could barely move them. He cursed.

Neither he nor Elma could have seen this ambush coming. The distress signal was real enough that none of them thought anything of it. But he doesn't have time to lament on past mistakes.

"Ten seconds…"

The clock is ticking and he is out of options.

"Eight seconds~"

He could rush him. Take a shot to the chest and-

"Six seconds! Come rook make fucking move!"

No. Jaden's little band of Prone would blast him to pieces before he could even take out one of them.

"Five!"

What else does he have? Wait!

"Four!"

The overdrive. Vanham told him that every mim has one. It'll only last for a few seconds but that maybe all the time he'll need.

"Three!"

How they hell dose he active the damn thing again? Come Fenrir, think!

"Two!"

Fenrir closed his eyes and focused. His teeth grinding themselves to near paste in desperation. He racked his brain, his very soul shook with tension. The air around him snapped and popped with blue lighting. The grass around his feet seem to pull themselves out their roots by an unknown force of gravity. A blot of thunder shot through his deep forest eyes.

Jaden couldn't help but smile. Not only is he going to kill some shitty little up start, but he's going away a millionaire thanks to his partner's tips and the Ganglion's pay. He may even have so fun with one of the most sot after woman in NLA! Hell that little genius is just a bonus! He wonder if she still has a hymen in that robot body of hers-

"Huh?"

Funny. For some reason Jaden can't feel his left arm.

Sparks of broken electronics pulsed out of the shoulder stub of what used to be Jaden's left arm that Fenrir had slashed off with blinding speed with his bare hand. Standing a few feet behind Jaden, Fenrir's hand is outstretched and covered in blue blood.

None of the prone had seen him move. Jaden had blinked for less than a second and lost a whole limb.

Jaden screamed. The pain of losing his whole arm all too real to laugh off. "Arg-GULK!?"

His anguish is very short lived. Fenrir's hand suddenly burst through Jaden's chest. Ripping out the core of his mim; a small blue orb that beat like a heart.

"Ah…ah…" Jaden gasped weakly. The feeling of his own heart being ripped out. Something he never thought that he'd feel in his whole life.

Fenrir didn't hesitant to crush the core into a blue paste as he tore his hand back form Jaden's dead ragdoll body. Static sparked around him. His overdrive pushing his mim to its limits.

"Open fire!" The Prone fired their blasters at him.

Saying Fenrir dodged their shots wouldn't make much sense. The Prone hit their mark, but their target would literally disappear and reappear form position to position. Like a phantom, Fenrir ghost through the onslaught of fire and rammed his fist in the skull of one Prone. A swift kick to the head snapped his neck. He jumped off his dead body to slam his knee into the face of another prone solider. In a flash he unleashed a dozen kicks, and one final one to his throat. Bullets flew and raged around him but none of them hit as he dashed around and slew the hoard.

Fenrir is a black beast. A hellish shadow that sped through their ranks like bloody hurricane.

A prone with a mace swung at him. He caught it and crushed it in his hand. While the prone recoiled, Fenrir shot his hand forward straight through his head and threw the dead body into the crowd.

"Uhh…" Fenrir's eyes grew hazy. He shook his head. Clearing his vision he saw the few remaining security guards. Their guns pointed him as they stared him down.

This…isn't Mira.

He's back on Earth. In the American Smithsonian. He is here to steal something.

His black jacket is replaced with midnight cloak that covered his whole face. He has his old equipment is back. Two blades, throwing stars and daggers. Two hand guns. And many other tools of the a violent trade.

His occupation.

His life.

All of it can been seen through a screen blood red.

"Ragh!" The white skinned prone yelled as he raised his fists to slammed Fenrir's head in. But he only hit air as Fenrir vanished from sight and priced the soldier's skull with his hand.

A prone lieutenant, seeing how bad this is going, aimed his guns at Elma and Lin. He can't take out one of witch's teammates, but he can at least take out the woman herself.

Fenrir, ripping his hand form the stomach of another Prone, heard the click of a gun and rushed to pick up Lin and Elma. The lieutenant cursed as he missed, but kept firing even though he didn't come close to hitting them as Fenrir brought them behind the rock.

"Hee!?" Tatsu shrieked when Fenrir suddenly appeared with Lin and Elma. His body giving off a strange aura as it crackled in electricity.

"Hey!"

A voice made him turned his to see an older man couching behind a downed fighter jet with him. He is wearing a black combat stealth suit. Magazines and other guns littered his suit along with cocksure smile. Even with the hell storm of bullets tearing up the old 2012 plane. But that is all he can see of his face. The rest is covered by the fog of his memory.

He is back on Earth. Ducking behind the plane with the man.

"You going slit these bastards throats or are we just going to seat here twiddling our thumbs?!"

Fenrir smirked. Of coruse he will! These idiots should have stayed home with their families!

"Ha ha!" Laughed his friend, calling out his name in glee. "That's the sprite-"

"F-Fenrir…?"

He blinked. Back on Mira.

Tatsu is still shaking like a leaf. Terrified as the gun fire grew closer.

"Keep firing!" Yelled the lieutenant. The few remaining men all fired their full rounds at the rock as they closed in.

Elma is still unconscious.

And Lin…

Her eyes are unfocused and petering in and out of consciousness. She looked up at him, yet there was no pain.

Only worry for his well being.

Lin dropped back in unconsciousnesss. And Fenrir growled. Directing it at the gunfire as the energy crackled around him.

He took Elma's only sowrd and her hand guns. His green eyes let out another spark.

"Keep them safe."

Tatsu shook in more fear. Yet the prone seemed like nothing compared the monster inside his friend.

Fenrir dashed out form cover, brandishing Elma's blade and her gun. The security team fired their guns while Fenrir smirked viciously. Deflecting their bullets with the balde, he charged at them with the force of a hurricane.

He sliced one man's arm off and finished him off by putting a bullet in his head. He ducked under a spray of rounds and took off a man's leg. As he fell, screaming in agony, Fenrir took off his head. A man came with a baton raised only to have it cut in half along with himself. He slammed his foot into the chin of another guard then cut it off with his blade.

"Arrgh!" Fenrir was suddenly rushed with duel baton wielding guard. He swung his batons with mad precision. But it mattered not as Fenrir disappeared as the guard swung his baton and only to hit air.

"Huglk!?" The purple blade cleanly cut through the prone's chest and armor. It did not pull out, it twisted to the side and cut his body in half. His mutilated body joined the others that now litter the ground.

Tatsu watched as his friend slew the final prone with and odd mix of fear and relief. It is utter massacre. The bodies of the pornes are cut into pieces. Their arms, heads, legs, their whole bodies are ripped apart. Not haphazardly like some unthinking beast. Every limb and slice of the body was a like a surgical cut form something that takes a sick joy into cutting apart its victims. Yet there was no smile on Fenrir's face.

Only a calm visage is shown. A relaxed face that seem to hint that Fenrir has done this type of carnage before.

The electricity of his overdrive continued to spark around him. The images in his mind flashed between the museum and back on Mira in Primordia. Pictures and moments in time he doesn't remember but just seem to fit right with him.

That time in China were he killed that old man.

Italy were he slaughter a group of solider veterans.

Taiwan where he slit the throats of that family.

A tiny whimper brought him out his thoughts.

Behind him Tatsu was trying to lift an wounded Lin on his tiny shoulders.

"Mmm-meh?" Tatsu himself was suddenly lifted up by Fenrir and placed on his shoulder.

He picked up Lin and held her under his arm while he put Elma on his back.

"I am sorry…" Even though he knows they can't hear him. He felt he should apologize. For this, and everything he has done and will do.

Making sure they both were comfortable, Fenrir told Tatsu briefly to "Hang on." Before dashing through the rainy night, his mind reeling.

"Damn it!" Irina cursed as she ran through the rain with Gwin towards the west gate.

While the rest of NLA is going through their normal nightly routines, Gwin and Irina both are pushing through the crowd in heavy desperation and fear.

"Elma's distress signal is coming from West Janpath Plain!" Gwin panted, his face deep with worry. "We can get there fast in a jeep."

He gave a weary glance to Irina. "She's never sent a distress signal before. Do you think-"

"Hell no!" She is quick to deny that claim, but believing it is another story. "I don't know what happened but-"

A sudden rush of wind caused them and everyone around them to stop in their tracks and guard themselves.

Fenrir was that gust. He has appeared out of thin air with Elma, Lin and Tatsu on his back.

"Colonel!"

"Fenrir! Lin!"

Gwin and Irina dashed towards them as Fenrir set them gently on the ground. His overdrive lightly scorching it. His clothes a tattered bloody mess of green and blue. On his back is Elma's blade, his pistol and one of Elma's guns. Tatsu rolled off him, dazed and dizzy form the speed Fenrir had ran.

"Take them to the Mim center…" He grumbled. Holding his head as it throbbed with random thoughts.

"Wait," Gwin asked, confused on what was happening. "Why are you overdrived? What ha-"

"NOW!" Fenrir's voice and body boomed as he roared at Gwin. His energy shocking his friend lightly as he demanded his him to move with glowing green eyes.

Gwin didn't need to be told twice.

"Help me out here!" He asked some of the other BLADEs around them to help take Lin and Elma to the Mim center.

"Ugh…" Fenrir groaned, shaking his head in mild pain.

"Hey! Wake up!"

Fenrir opened his eyes as peeked form his novel that laid flat on his face. Laying in his bed in one of his many hid outs in the American southwest, he looked at the large man form the Smithsonian who sighed when he noticed he finally woke up.

"You got a job." The man said with slight familiar humor in his voice.

Fenrir merely gazed at the man, until he lazily asking. "How much?"

"You have to kill the new Chinese ambassador and-"

"How much?" He growled under his book.

"Ten million as a down payment-"

"Forty million for both." He hopped off the bed and took his weapons off the wall. "I killed the last ambassador two goddamn years ago for eleven million. If that moron that leads the triads think I am going to kill another loser for less, I'll just slit his and anyone else that else's throat and steal his money myself." Fenrir growled as he placed on his cloak.

The other man sighed, "Just don't leave so much blood Xzavier."

"Whatever-"

"FENRIR!"

Green eyes snapped open to look into Irina's concerned greys.

"Cross…" He whispered in a dazed. "Xzavier Cross…."

"Who?" Irina asked, bemused by more than just recent events.

He stood up shaking his head clear. "I have to keep going."

"Keep-hold the heck on!" Irina jumped out in front of him to stop his advance. She glared heatedly up at him.

"You need to hit the mim center yourself! You can't stay overdrived for too long!"

He didn't seem to hear her as he vanished into the night.

Cursing, Irina ran towards one of the jeeps parked outside the gate. Jumping in the driver's seat, she revved up the engine.

"Irina!?" Gwin rushed up to her, listless but concerned.

"Make sure the Colonel and Lin are alright! I am going after Fenrir to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid!" She stepped on the gas as the jeep sped out into the distance as Gwin yelled.

"And who's going to stop you from doing anything stupid!?"

His only answer was the roar of the jeep as it drove out into wet plains of Primordia.

The purple blade cut the prone in half. The alien's screams echoed throughout the cave as Fenrir spun to block the mace of another prone, the electricity off his overdrive sparked. Bullets screamed at him from his left. He vanished in a flash to kick the prone in wall of gunfire. Letting the prone's comrade lacerate him while Fenrir shot the gun men with his pistol.

"Kill him!"

In a cave base in primordia, prones swarmed the overdrived BLADE who has foolishly invaded them suddenly. He did not falter with their high numbers. Every prone that came across him was slaughtered. The blade in his hand sliced through them with ease as he twirled it in his hands. The sword in his fingers is an instrument of blood. Every note he made took off a head. Cut open a throat. Slice apart a spine.

Fenrir is killing maestro.

"Ragh!"

A Prone brute rushed Fenrir down with his mace, only for a broken knife to slip into his stomach as he ducked low under his swing. He took out his gun and put a bullet right through the prone's chin. Spinning from under the dead body, he parried a knife with his own broken one. Stabbing his sowrd through his body and slicing upwards as the bullets and laser fire surged around him. Every shot is just wiping by the hairs on his skin.

A group of squealing armored Suids rushed at him with their spiked horns pointed right at him. Dashing in a small raging stamped.

His bloodlust did not waver.

He barreled through them spinning and hacking away at their tender flesh. As he passed each one, he slashed their throats. The alien swine that passed him fell to the dirt limp. Dead with their snouts in the dirt and their blood seeping out their sides.

The alpha of the group roared and dashed right at Xzavier with its horn poised to skewer him. It slobbered and bellowed in wild fury, yet the BLADE stood his ground. Fenrir stabbed his blade into the ground and grabbed the raging pig to stop his advance. The massive animal only pushed him back slightly, the force of a train slamming into him felt like being hit by a big dog.

"Syaaaah!" With a mighty yell, Xzavier lifted the alien beast up and crashed it back down to the ground. Stone flew in the air form the body slam and Fenrir brutally ripped off the metal horn off its head and rammed it in his head. Purple blood sprayed in the air as the beast died with a painful wail.

The rage in his eyes, the burning in those roaring green orbs that made contact with the remaining beasts caused them to squeal and run in the other direction. Disobeying their masters as they ran the other way in fear of whatever monster that has appeared on Mira tonight.

Gunfire still blazed as he stomped his the ground beside force lunching his sowrd up allowing him to kick it. Sending it flying into the crowd of Prone still marching to him, it sliced through two soldiers while he took out both of his pistol and started to fire back into the crowd. Firing with ruthless aim, ducking through their own shots and shooting right between the aliens' eyes.

Flipping over the back of one prone, Xzavier killed another with shot to the head and picked up his blade to slice through the face of another. A deadly ballet of bullets and steel streamed rolled through the Ganglion army like a wave.

The in raged BLADE, titled his head to the side to allow a red laser to zip right past him.

"Let the Puges handle him!" Yelled the commander of the Prones, as he sent out a small group of robotic killers to charge at Fenrir.

He charged them head on, avoiding the laser fire and meting the first purge with a quick clash of blades, and then severing of one it's arms. He thrusted the arm through the robot's core and turned it against its comrades. Using the other arm, he started firing it's blaster at other Purges. Shooting holes in them before tearing off that arm and lunched it at the head of the rampaging machines. Fenrir dashed through the robotic guards, slashing through their metal skin with ease. He evaded their blades arms, and deflected their laser fire.

He bounced off the chest of a puge to slice another in half. His bullets slew through head of another. He vanished from one point to the next, cutting through them with ghostly movements. The world suddenly shook. Fenrir flipped over a massive energy blast form two pulgiliths. They stomped, clanking their feet as they tried to pelt their speedy target.

Slicing another Purge, Fenrir ran towards the two the towering droids. He bounced between their towering steel legs as they tried to crush him under foot. Sliding under metal toes, he cut the sentry's main cannon under its stomach. As the big gun dropped into his hands, Fenrir used the last of its energy to blast a hole through its hull. Sparks and fire blew open through the top of the walking metal tank as it tipped over and crashed into the ground as the speedy BLADE dashed form under the crumbling robot.

"Rahh!"A red ball of energy soared through the sky, roaring down at Xzavier from the Qmoeva ganglion skell. The black alien mech fired a volley of cannon fire at the disappearing and reappearing form of Fenrir as he sidestepped and dodge the gun fire form the Skell's pincers. The commander of the base and of the skell bellowed in frustration at the lone warrior decimating his whole team. Yet even with both him and the pulgiliths firing at him, Fenrir danced through their gun fire while giving off shots of his own.

Using the towering tank as a stool, Fenrir jumped off the smaller head of pulgiliths. Slashing back the rapid fire of bullets, he flew up towards the skell with his blades poised to strike. His blade clashed with the pincers as they snapped at him, flipping over one and running up its arm. The other pincer aimed its gun at him, charging its gun to fire off another shot point blanket at the menace in his base.

The explosion rocked the cave ceiling. The ganglion skell fell to the ground in a flaming blaze. Crashing into the tank. Making a bigger explosion of fire and metal. The Prone shielded themselves form the debris. The fire roared with the explosion.

The intruder was crushed between the two machines, not being able to escape such a blast. The ganglion soldiers gave a sigh of relief at that. The man had come in out of nowhere and starting depleting their numbers too fast for them to catch up. Nothing they did seemed to stop him.

While they did lose their captain in the process, at least-

A clanking sound echoed off the stone walls. A foot, perched up on a broken piece of the skell. The figure standing on it made their blood run cold.

He watched them.

These fearful fools who dare stand against him.

The so called brave men of the U.S Marines shivered and shook at the sight of him walking out the crashed plane.

A few dropped their guns. Others shameful babbled out ridiculous words out fear.

"Devil."

"Demon."

"The Black Hand of Satan."

Satan?

He chuckled.

Yes….

"Heh heh heh…"

He is not this fool named Fenrir!

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Or some no name called Xzavier Cross!

"KY HA HA HA HA HA! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

He is The Black Hand of Satan!

And fools in his way like these just need to die!

"Ah ha ha ha ha!" The monster leaped off the metal plate and decapitated the Vix with an overzealous smile. He hand bust through the chest of another Prone as he tried to smash him with his hammer. The prone screamed as his chest bleed open yet was quickly silenced when a bullet pierced his skull.

Die!

He broke a neck.

Die!

He severed a limb.

Die!

He ripped out a heart.

Prone after prone fell to maniacal killer. Their gurgling yells are a symphony to his ears. The snapping of their bones made a joyful shiver crawl down his spine. His smile grew as more mutilated bodies, more limbs and blood, more lives are sacrificed to his will.

"Kyahahahahaha!" He laughed as their green blood sprayed out of their bodies. Their faces twisted in pain as the horror of death drop on them.

Ah….

The sheer joy of it all…

"Fenrir!"

Ah ha!

Another life to put to the blade!

He swung his sowrd in ravaging bloodlust. Thirsty for the head of the person who is foolish enough to-

"Xzavier."

His sword stopped short.

The fifthteen year old girl smiled at him in rather cocky manner. The air of confidence naturally rolled off of her like she own the concept of arrogance. But there is this gentleness under that powerful gaze. It could be her gentle visage. The beach tanned skin lightly dusted with freckles giving her an even more youthful look beyond her age. Even if those sharp hazel eyes, mostly form her Asian descent, showed an intelligence, a cunning and a cruelty far from the mind of the average fifthteen year old girl. Is it how her short cut raven hair, with part of it dyed a flaming red, frames her face in rough boyish way yet still can make her look like an innocent school girl. The sweetness that she only shows him. She smooth touch of her fingers.

Or is the how she says his name with those smooth lips.

"F-Fenrir?"

Green eyes snapped open and shut as they stared into the stunned slivers of Irina's pupils.

Her hand was on her handgun. Hovering over it as she looked down at the sharp blade at her throat. She didn't even get a chance to put a finger on her gun before the sowrd stop just short of drawing blood.

"Irina?" Fenrir shook his head, trying to recognize the women before him.

He caught the destruction he had caused. The fires from the mechs still burned along with all the dead prones he has slain.

"Damn…" He cursed, putting his weapons away. "I went too far…."

No. He didn't go too far.

This is just was he does.

What he has always done.

Irina let out a shaky breath of relief. She had finally caught with him when he was knee deep in the massacre. For the few months she has known Fenrir, she has never seen him so…happy.

It frightened her.

"Fenrir." But she can't let that stop her. His teammate, her colonel's subordinate, is in trouble and he needs help. "You need to deactivate that overdrive and comeback to NLA."

She looked at the bloodbath. As much as she hates the Ganglion, this type of murder made her sick.

"We can find the ones who attacked Lin and Elma when you're fully repaired."

He shook his head, "I can't. Not yet."

He turned to walk towards the entrance of the cave, however he stumbled as his head started to throb in pain.

"Hey!" Irina rushed to keep him steady. "Come on you care barely stand!"

But he didn't hear her. "I…have to keep going…to..."

"Cairo."

The seventy fourth United States president said calmly with the knife to his trachea. His security team has the assailant, Satan's Black Hand, surround with guns. But he didn't appear phased as he pushed the blade to the fifty two year Indian old man.

"That's where the terrorists head group is station. We would send a team out there to take them out but the camp is too fortified and there are too many civilians at risk."

"You know the same terrorist are offering me thirty two billion to take your head to finally kick off World War Three." He says off handedly, pushing the blade closer too-

"One hundred billion. As a down payment."

"Hmph." The shadow chuckled. "You Americans have always been big spenders."

He removed the knife and disappeared into the shadows.

"I'll send the heads of Hu Amon and his family in a weeks' time. And keep the second payment. I don't need to kill another U.S president because he couldn't pay me."

"Cairo…" Xzavier mumbled under his breath as images of a crumbling mansion and headless family of a farther, two sons, a daughter and mother came to mind.

"What?" Irina asked utterly confused.

Fenrir shook her and his thoughts off. He stood up then vanished before Irina could even move.

"Hey! Crap!" She ran back outside in the rain to her jeep and drove. Fallowing the blurring image as it bounced form rock to rock towards Seaswept base.

Gwin leaned against the wall in the mim recovery hall. Watching over Lin and Elma as their mim's healed.

"Damnit Irina…"And watching his comm device as he still could not get into contact with his lieutenant.

"Evans!"

Gwin jumped and turned to his left to see Vanham and Nagi storm down the hall.

"C-commander!?"

"What the hell happened out there!?" Vanham bellowed in rage. "I sent them on simple rescue mission, and then I hear about Lin and Elma coming in half dead!?"

Nagi gave a quick look around. "And where is lieutenant Fenrir?"

"Yeah! Where in all of Mira is that moron!? He should be here tell me what the blazes is going on! Along with Akulov!"

Gwin swallowed hard at the questions thrown his way. "I-I am just as lost at you are commander."

He rubbed the back of his head trying to make sense of the past forty minutes. "Me and Iir-er lieutenant Akulov, got a distress single form Elma nearly fifty minutes ago. Before we could head out, Fenrir burst through the East gate, overdrived and carrying-"

"Wait." Nagi stopped him. "Are you saying Fenrir was overdrived when he got back?"

Gwin blinked at the question. "Uh yeah. He even stayed overdrived when he left-ah!?"

"How long!?" Vanham slammed his large hand on the wall behind Gwin. Demanding an answer.

"Wha-"

"How long was Fenrir overdrived!?"

"I-I don't know! Maybe thirty minutes, almost an hour before he left!"

Nagi and Vanham exchanged ghostly pale looks far beyond what their Mims should show.

"Akulov!"

Irina cursed as her comm device suddenly went live with Commander Vanham's voice as she burned through Primordia's planes, hot on Fenrir's trail.

She picked up the line with a snarl, "Commander I-"

"Are you in pursuit of Fenrir!?"

Irina cocked an eyebrow. "Yes."

"Akulov. You either get him to shut down his overdrive, or you put a bullet through his head you hear me?"

The jeep screeched to a halt. Nearly breaking her neck as her car came to a sudden stop as she yelled in disbelief.

"What!?"

Nagi took the comm link next. His voice more calm, but equally as desperate.

"Listen Irina. There is a reason mims have an automatic shut if someone stays overdrived for longer than an hour." Explained the secretary. "While there are some people who can over that limit, their bodies will shut down and be put in a coma for who knows how long. But, and while it has yet to be documented officially, if anyone is to hit the three hour mark, their mims with overload and combust."

"And we're not talkin' about some cute head popping off stuff!" Vanham took control of the comm. "We're talkin' about a full nuclear blast of the damn Fat Boy with twice the explosive force!"

"Fenrir's going to put a crater the size of New Hampshire in Mira if he doesn't shut down in two hours!"

Irina stayed silent. The pumping of her artificial blood, the heavy pelting of rain, the humming of her jeep's engine. None of it is as loud as the weight that suddenly dropped on her shoulders.

"I-" Irina tried to find the words, but all of them became caught up in her throat.

Nagi took the reins. His voice cold as ice, and blunter then a steel bat. "Look. We can't have such an event happen on Mira. We don't know what effects it will have on the planet. If you can't get Fenrir to shut down, you're going to have to terminate him. If you aim just above the temple it should shut him down without fulling damaging his consciousness or his mim beyond repair."

The steeliness in Nagi's eyes, the freeze cold look of man ready to face his choices couldn't help her own wavering resolve.

"That's an order, Akulov."

Irina didn't look at her device. Just like she can't imagine the look on Elma's face. The tears in Lin's eyes. And the guilt in her heart.

Steeling herself for her new mission, she revved the jeeps engine. Her guns feeling a lot heavier on her back as she drove faster to catch up with Fenrir.

"Yes sir."

Even though she spoke through gritted teeth of regret. Irina is ready to face the reaper.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Devil May Cry

She glared at the man sleeping in his hammock. His comic book covering his face as he snored. She can see the bandages on his arms under his red coat jacket. His wounds form a week ago apparently still haven't healed. His short spiky black peaked form under his book. The savanna back ground is an odd contrast for him as he slept between the two trees.

The seventeen year old girl scoffed at that. Her short black and red hair bounced as she placed her hands on her hips in annoyance. The black sundress she wore fluttered with her hips as she tilted them in a sassy manner.

"Xzavier." She growled, only receiving a light mumbled from him in response.

In her anger the young girl kicked the man out of his hammock. Instead of falling flat on his face, however, he quickly caught himself and pulled out a knife. His dark green eyes darting for his target. Which is glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

When their eyes met he sent a small glare of his own.

"Seriously?" He asked putting away his knife. "Are trying to make me kill you?" Xzavier stepped back in his hammock, picking up his comic along the way.

"The dishes." She crossed her arms in authority. "I asked you to do them an hour ago."

Xzavier sighed, "I said I'll do them…" He placed the comic book back on his face and drifted back to sleep.

However the girl is clearly not in the mood for excuses, "When your fiancé asks you to do something, you're supposed to do it."

"Mmmm…" His snore seem to answer for him.

She sent out another kick only for it to grabbed by his hand. He peaked out form under his comic again, speaking in a rather listless voice. "When you get shot thirteen times and have a thousand volts of stun gun electricity go through you, doing dishes aren't on your top five things to do."

"Ture." She lowered her foot back to the ground but her mood stayed sour. "But that was almost two weeks ago. And I've seen you recover form worse in less than a week. "

The comic was lowered and there was a growl form the back of his throat. It wasn't his angry growl that she rarely hears. It was his 'I am not in the mood to talk about it' growls.

She sighed at her lover's stubbornness. She walked around the hanging bed, and sat on its edge. The netting stretched as the bed swung a little with the added weight. He made no move to her even though they both know he's wide awake. Aware of her presences.

Gently she placed his head in her lap and started playing with his hair. Paying close attention to the white spots of hair on his head. Making him grumble in enjoyment of her menstruations.

"You're bothered by something."

That's just how well she knows him. By a simple glance she can tell if something is troubling him.

"You want to talk about it?" She asked sweetly. Leaving behind that rough tone of her's for a kinder one. Laced with an almost musical tune that drives away all his worries. Looking into those chocolate eyes, he knows he can tell her anything. For her, he has no secrets. Everything is laid bare. Naked without any shields or protection. But this wasn't about her, whose heart as nearly as grey as his, it's about him. This decision he is making is more than a little life changing.

Lazily, almost without thinking, he let his knuckles gaze her cheek. She showed him that joyful smile. Leaning into the warmth of his hand. His touch soft, gentle. The opposite of his life and what he loves to do.

"Hey." He said. A simple word, but she giggled and blushed none the less. Taking his hand in hers, their gold rings clinking together. She kissed his palm. Quick and light.

"Hey yourself." Their foreheads touched, making him smiling silently. Their signs of their soon marriage glowing in the wintery afternoon. South African winters are shocking cool. But never to the point of cold.

He sighed. He can't talk to her about this. Not yet anyway.

"I'll go do the dishes." He said as she allowed him to stand up from the hammock. Her eyes still holding some concern.

"…Are you sure you're ok?"

He rolled his left shoulder, walking to the back door of their cabin. "Its fine. You were right. I was healed up about a week ago."

"And you're sure you don't want to talk what's bothering you?"

He scratched his head, chuckling a little. This girl is way too understanding. "Not really…"

She sighed, crossing her arms in aggravation. "You're a stubborn dork you know that?"

"If I wasn't so stubborn, I'd be dead by now." He laughed a little at that and she laughed along with him.

"Oh what would the world do with our kind hearted hero?" She over dramatically draped her body over the hammock.

Fenrir leaned against the frame of the door grinning. "Well there would less people dead and all the world's minors would be safe."

"Hey." She pouted at him. "I better be the only minor you're screwing."

"In another year, you'll be the only woman I am screwing." He smirked at her, waving his ring finger. She giggled again, her laugh cheery. Echoing out the South African air.

"Well, whenever you're ready. I am here to listen alright?"

He nodded to her. Slowly preparing himself to talk to her soon about his choice. "I know you are Hanako. I know."

The rain pelted the shadow that loomed over the prone base. His dark green eyes peered out to the patrols form his perch on the tower. Lighting shook the sky. Giving a glimpse of his ominous aura on top of the tower. A blacken blade glimmering in the night as his own lighting shocked and flowed around him. Memories. Images of a forgotten time. They calmed him. Soothed his sinful soul.

But it did not cleanse it.

He leaped. Falling, his blade silently pierced through the skull of the frist guard on the balcony. He flipped, grabbing the second guard by the head to snap his neck. The Vix turned only for a broken knife to fly into her throat. Pining her to the wall.

Footsteps. One set. Climbing up the stairs.

He moved quickly. Grabbing his sword and taking his knife form the vix's blood green neck and dashed down the stairs.

Auld walked up the stairs, gun in hand. He is to switch with Ragnar tonight since there was an attack on the cave base north east of here and he is being sent as back up-

A shadow flew. A kick sent him tumbling down the stairs, cracking his head as he hit the bottom with loud boom. The shadow raced after him, slamming his foot into his chest and then putting a bullet through his head. The sound of iron slamming into the steel hull echoed throughout the base.

"Hm?" Warrok's small ears twitched at the sound gun fire form the door he just passed.

The prone ran up to open the door, gun in hand, to find nothing. Yet there is splotch of blood on the ground.

"Huh? MPH!?" A gloved hand covered in shadow, wrapped around his mouth from behind to quite his screams of pain as a purple blade tore through his chest. He coughed up blood through the fingertips of the shadow. The blade twisted and pushed deeper as the world went dark. The air leaving his punctured lungs. His body going completely limp and still.

"An ill omen…" Banth murmured. Looking up at the bleak sky as the heavens cried down upon them.

He looked to his comrades in the open field next to the suids pen. The animals shivering form more than just the nonstop rain.

"This storm has not let up since this morning. And the base near west Janpath path has been reported destroyed." The Vix, Silvana, spoke in a rather somber tone. Looking to the pitch black sky as it lit up with a roar of lighting. The suids shook and shivered in the rain. Huddled in their pen, they looked almost frightful of the weather.

"Do you think it's this weather that has them spooked or…" Gauri kneeled next to the frighten beasts as the huddled around each other in the pen.

Banth watched the cloudy skies. The rain not even trying to let up. The shadows around them seem to whisper and move. Slithering around like worms.

"There is something else here." Zando held his gun closer to him.

Banth turned to Gauri. "Go check around. Notify me or command if you see anything suspicion."

Gauri nodded and marched off to portal the south side of the building. There isn't much light on this side but his goggles made it easy to spot any movement in the dark. However it did not ease his worry. The cave base, while not heavily fortified, is home to Falgo. A strong a powerful warrior. A prone who has bested many beast in combat. To hear words of his death sent a chill down his spine. As if someone's eyes, the eyes of a monster, are watching him.

"Mph!" Hands. Claws leaped form the shadows and dragged him into the dark. His struggles dying with him.

"Gauri?" Banth spoke in his comm, only to hear static. The darkness around him closing in. Suffocating him.

"Gaur-"

"Ahh!"

Silvana pained yelled man him turn only to find her gone with only a splotch of blood on the ground in replacement. The shadows moved and quaked now. Agitated and angry.

"We're under attack!" He stood back to back with his comrade. Their guns armed and pointed at the moving darkness.

"How many do think there are?" Zando grunted, swinging his sights at the shifting shadows.

"Don't know. Don't care." Banth reached for his comm as he looked to his left. Light footsteps ghosted through his ears. "I am calling for-"

"Banth-"Zando turned to find only the bleeding stump of his partner's neck. A purple blade stabbed through his chest and his body was suddenly pulled back. Devoured by the black abyss.

Swiftly he tapped the commutator on his ear. Only for a bullet to soar in and shatter it with perfect precision.

"Ahrgghh!" He fired to his left where the shot came from. His muzzle flash lighting up the night. The suids squealed. Bayed and bellowed with their shrieks into the night. Only until a full clip was unloaded did Zando stop.

The shadows stop their restless swaying. Their voices silent.

A gun shot form his right knock his blaster out of his hands. Shattering it as it crashed to the ground. He grunted in frustration only to yell in pain as his back was sliced by the wind. Green blood spurted form his armor as whatever blade cut through his it.

The Suid's screech got higher. Fear robbing them of their sense as they stamped and roared. Desperate to get away.

Yet a single glare for deadly green eyes silenced them.

"Who is the prone that deals with the human?" The shadows echoed. It's voice bouncing form everywhere yet nowhere.

"You're a fool!" Zando taunted back. "The men in this base will-argh!"

A blade cut his chest and a bullet tore through his right elbow. Shattering the fragile bone.

"Who is the prone that deals with the humans?" The darkness asked again in the same calm tone.

"What-gah!"

The wind suddenly raged as what felt like a fist crack against this jaw. His left arm was twisted backwards, and two shots to the leg crippled him.

"There was an ambush on the White Witch and team not too long ago."

The wind roared again and his knee was cut. Making Zando fall completely on his face.

"Who was the prone that gave that order?"

A bullet cut through his spine and he wailed in agony.

"Tell. Me."

"I DON'T KNOW!" Zando wailed. Screaming to the top of his lungs in utter desperation.

Cold steel lifted his chin. Green devilish eyes bore down on Zando. His blood leaking form all his wounds as his breath hitched, desperate for air. His body bloody, as fiendish green eyes stared him down.

"That's not the answer I am looking for."

"Yo." He walked through the door of the cabin, his cloak covered in blood. Fenrir gave a tired yawn as started taking off his equipment.

"How was the job?" The sixteen year old Hanako asked she stirred the pot of stew. An older man sat at a round table in the middle of the room with a newspaper in hand.

"Well that family in Wellington just had very bad vacation being dead and all."

The older man's eyes peeked over the paper. The same man form that has assisted him in a few heists before. His face a bit more noticeable. A man of older age. Tough laugh lines shows his more jovial nature, yet his strong jaw makes look a few years older than need. His black eyes and military cut hair is more a reference to his police career. However, that is more of a cover for his drug dealing. "Still don't know why the yakuza paid thirty thousand just to off a small business family."

"Don't know. Don't care. Their dead, I am tired." Fenrir sloped in his chair with a sigh. Hanako giggled, potting her stew and placed herself in his lap. Causing him to groan in slight pain, but he held her closer regardless.

"Here." She shoved a piece of jewelry in his face. A sliver chian bracelet. The single charm on the end is that of a dog or a wolf eating at what seems to be the world.

"You know I don't do jewelry." He sighed at her. "That jingling may get me killed, and if I drop it, they can get DNA samples and-"

"You don't have to wear it every day or something." She rolled her eyes, shoving the charm in his hands. "It's just a gift. For your birthday old man."

"Huh?"

"Yeah." The older man chuckled form behind his view of the newspaper. "You're finally twenty one and I can finally arrest you for screwing a minor."

Fenrir ignored him, smiling at his girlfriend. "Hmph. Thanks, but…" He looked at the charm, wondering what it's meant to represent. "What does this even mean?"

"Don't know." She shrugged. "But it kind of reminds me of you."

That made him raise an eyebrow at how a dog eating the Earth reminds her of him. If it's about his favorite animal she should know it's iguanas.

She pouted a little, "Don't give me that look. I am not book worm like you."

She leaned in deep into his chest, taking his hand in hers. "Sometimes I think the wolf you. I think that…one of these days you're going to eat this world." Those beautiful hazel eyes smiled up at him. "Or that the world is the wolf and they may just eat you…"

He smiled dangerously, "Well you have told me I have a big stomach."

She chuckled in good humor. Inching her lips closer to his. "I don't think it's that big."

"Soo…about that jail time…"

Both of the glared humorously at the older man as he laughed behind his newspaper.

"How many bullets do you have left?" Hanako grumbled, however Xzavier simply sighed in regret.

"Not enough to kill a stubborn guy like Homer."

"Gwah!?"

The prone Langul was tossed into the wall by the shadow. The nub that used to be his left arm is oozing his green blood. Making his head light a dizzy as it rung form the many poundings the shadow gave him.

His tormentor, a smoking black haze covered in thunder, stalked to him. His blade gleaming in the glimpses of light for the streak of lighting in the sky. His eyes, a deep evil green, glared down at him. Not in pity. Not even in distain. Just unnerving clam. And easy and gentleness that terrified the pound warrior to his core.

Langul tried to stand. To fight back. But shadow is mercilessly quick. He dashed at him, a fist slamming hard into his stomach. Before he could even cough up more of his blood, a kick sent him reeling. Spinning in the air and landing on his face on the steel hull of his base with a sold thud.

The sound should have sent ripples through the base. Prones all over should be converging on this position to attack the intruder. But the sound of body hitting steel echoed out the base with an eerie silence.

"Who is the Prone that deals with the humans? Who has had contact with them to set up an ambush?" The shadow asked. His voice like melting ice; cold and smooth.

The Prone elite chose his words carefully. This…thing has massacred the whole base by himself with such precision and skill, he know if he answers this question wrong, it can mean his head.

"Be-Bedrock hold." He sputtered. "There-there is someone there who-"Langul's head flew in a beautiful arc in the air as it was cut from his body. Green liquid pulsed out of his stub of a neck until it fell over in a dead slump.

Fenrir jump from the top of the deck. Landing on the ground in utter silence, yet his mind is elsewhere. Stuck in the past of over three years ago.

"Fenrir." Irina's voice echoed to him. She stood behind him, having fallowed his trail of violence to the middle of the base.

"…Irina." It took him a moment to come back to the present day. His overdrive crackling with energy.

"…Hanako Ishiragi…." That name brought a small smile to his face. It wasn't something he can control. It's just a natural reaction to her. "There…is a woman by that name in NLA right?"

Irina hesitated to answer. "I...I don't know." She took a tentative step forward. "But if you shut down your overdrive and come back to NLA, we can look for her."

Irina smiled hopefully.

"I can't." Fenrir shook his head. Irina lost her smile.

He took a step forward, and she took out her assault rifle.

"Stop damnit!" Irina yelled, in near desperation. Her sights and barrel dead on the back of Fenrir's head.

"Vanham and Nagi gave me a kill order on you if you don't shut down your overdrive! It's going to overheat and explode!" She shook her head at the horrible thought, her teeth bared in fear of the thought. "For god sakes Fenrir, you're going to go nuclear! I can see the stream coming off of you!"

Ture to her word, Fenrir has felt his body get hotter as the time passed. The rain starting too evaporated before it could even touch him.

"Please…" Irina pleaded. She doesn't want to see this. Not again. Not have someone so close to her be taken away again. "Come home…"

He can hear the desperation in her voice. The fear she felt for his safety. But he can't stop now. For Elma. For Lin. And for Hanako.

"I promise." Electric crackled like firecrackers over his body. "I won't explode."

She believes him. By god dose Irina believe him. It's hard not to with a voice filled with such conviction. But…

She raised her gun at the right height. A clear shoot at the back of his head.

"I am sorry. I can't take that chance…."

"…"

"…."

"…Alright." Fenrir nodded. "I'll stop."

Irina sighed. Lowering her-

"If you can hit me."

He disappear in a flash before Irina could even get a shoot off. She cursed her dumb sentimental nature and raced back to her jeep.

'Nonononono! Not again!' Her body pounded in fear of history repeating itself. She has already lost one person close to her. And now she is about to lose another.

"Ahahahaha!" Hanako couldn't hold her laughter in any longer. Her giggling echoing of the small cottage on one of the islands in South East Asia. The seventeen year old doubled over with tears in her eyes.

Xzavier just sighed. Rubbing his temple. "Are you done?"

"S-Sorry." She wiped a tear form her eye. Trying to steady herself. "But did you seriously just say you're going to stop being The Black Hand?"

He crossed his arms with a shrug. "Yeah."

Hanako smirked, "You wouldn't last a week until you're out there again cutting off heads."

But Fenrir shook his head. "I quitting the contract killer thing. I personally don't care for the name or the job that much. They just called me that."

Hanako honestly can't believe it. This is path that defines her lover. It is what makes him the person he is today.

"Why?" Is all she can ask.

Fenrir rubbed the back of his head with a little embarrassment on the next few words on his lips. "Because of you…"

That however left his fiancé even more confused. Titling her head like cute lost puppy. Seeing the look on her face he sighed and walked over to her to take her in his arms.

"We're getting married Hanako. Being the Black Hand will just put an even bigger target on your back."

Her hand, so warm and gentle, caressed his cheek. And he found himself leaning and nearly purring at her touch.

"Killing is who you are, Xzavier. I knew that about you before I even met you. I know who can't just stop something like that on a dime. Even if it is for me."

However her lover shook his head, "I said I am done being the Black Hand, not done killing. I am only killing for you. Not for money. Not to survive. Not for hate. Not for me. Just for you." He took her hand off his cheek and lightly kissed her palm. His sweet love sending a shiver of joy down her spine.

"And for our future family."

She giggled lightly. His touch making butterflies in her stomach. "I not pregnant."

She leaned closer. Her eyes lowered in a lustful haze. "Yet."

He smirked. Placing another kiss on the back of her hand. Gently. Lightly. Loving and filled with devotion for her. "When your business finally kicks off, and it will, you're going to make a lot of enemies. You're going to need someone handy with blade to take care of all of them form the behind the scenes."

"Hmmm…" She pressed her body closer to him. Her arms encircling him in a possessive hold. "So anyone I hate, you'll go after?"

His lips met her shoulder. Pushing her back against the wooden wall with a hungry growl in his throat. "You point your finger, and I shoot."

She craned her neck back with a groaned. Allowing him to attack her with his searing kisses. "That cute waitress girl who keeps sending you goo goo eyes?"

"Her head mounted over our fire place."

"Those stuffed suits that won't let me have my way with the company?" A hiss form a nibble on her collar bone.

"Men like that are easily replaced." Soft hands tickled down her side. Sending her hips right into his, and his body responding to her heat in kind.

"Mmmm, the American president?" Her own hands tugged and pulled at his pants, while the roamed the scars on his hard stomach under his shirt.

"Are you even trying?" He laughed wickedly. His teeth grazing her ear, then coming back down to kiss her cheek.

She purred when his hand griped her rear with sinful intentions. She pulled his closer, whispering huskily in his ear.

"The devil himself?"

His lips met Hanako's in blaze of passion. Both of them moaning in bless as their tongues wrestled for each other. Pulling apart he smiled like the fiend he his.

"Our kids will use his head as a football."

Her joyful laugh turned into a hearty moan as he tickled her ear with his teeth. His hands reaching for the waist band of her jeans.

He can feel it. His body burning to insane levels. The slow steam soon turned to smoke as he rushed a crossed the wet fields.

"Tch." He clicked his teeth. Such a minor annoyance.

Fenrir didn't let that stop him. He merely pushed on. Pushed past his limits. The limits of machine and man. Soon the steam dissipated. Evaporating like the heat of his body. Form sure will alone, Fenrir stopped his mim form overheating. His overdrive still burning Mira as he ran.

'She has to be in NLA.' Dashing across the plains of Primordia, Xzavier assured himself. 'I…I just know it.' Yet he sounds off. Hesitant. Like something is missing to make him positive of answer.

He shook his head of that thought. He has to keep going. He won't stop until all the pieces at together again.

The Ganglion skell plane, Quo, spun out of control in the blacken sky. Smoke raged form it pieces over Bedrock base. It's occupants of Marnuck and Prone looked up and fired at the small black target on the back of the plane. Only one of the bases turrets are operational as it fired a barrage of blast at the ship to hit the target. The others are smoldering metal form being destroy by the plane moments earlier.

The burning plane banked and rolled form the gunfire. Then it hone in and sored straight into the turret in a large explosion of metal. Many of the soldiers ducked and dived out of the blast radius. They crept slowly to the blaze. Whatever had attacked them, had done so by taking out most of the tower sentries and then hijacking one of their planes to gun to the turrets.

It was an insane tact that luckily ended in failure on the intruder's part. The ganglion eased themselves closer to the crash site with extreme caution. News of bases being attacked has been buzzing through their communications wave. Everything about the attacker are unknown. The only thing that is known, is that there are never any survivors.

"Clear!" Shouted the prone commander.

The burning wing of the ship soared through the air and slashed through the bodies of the purges and Marnuck. Bullets danced out form the flames. Ripping through the ganglion's ranks with bloody affects. Heads snapped back from head shots, knees were blown out, and bodies became filled with holes.

"Open fire!" They shot back into the wreckage even as their numbers dwindled.

Like a flash, a flaming body roared out of the fiery crash and sliced the commander with a glowing purple blade. The burning cloak danced and slashed through them. They continued to blast at it but to no avail as the burning man either dodged or deflected their shoots.

With a masterful spin he slit the stomachs of the five soldiers around him, cleansing himself of the fire on his body. But it did not quell the blaze in his green eyes. Static bounced off his body. His tatted black jacket shook with unknown energy, his clothes and armor are sacred and burnt from the flames.

He blurred through their ranks. Slashing and cutting bodies not in rage. But in question.

'Where?' He parried a mace with a slice, then returned it with a thrust.

'Where is she!?' He asked his fragmented mind with nothing but desperation.

As he cut through the bodies he cut through his memories. Hacking them apart with monstrous ambition.

Their first real date in the Philippines. The time he killed three NATO representatives. Their first night making love. The promises he kept. The ones she made. They are all too far back. Years in the past.

He needs something more recent. More real.

'She's here!' He danced under bullets. Slashing through armor and bone. 'I know it!'

He can feel it. He knows she's here. A part of his soul knows her here, yet another part is nervous. Terrified of some unforeseen truth.

'Where! Where! Where!' He felt himself slowly going mad. His goal his close. He feel the dark veil of his mind left ever so steadily, but the pace is driving him insane.

He cut and spun. Killing through the ganglion, and running through his mind until, as the head of another prone flew with a swipe of his blade, he saw it.

The last time he saw Hanako.

In her life pod.

'No…'

As his slowly closed.

'No.'

A man. A man covered in the darkness of his mind. Walked to it.

"No!"

Gun in hand.

"HANAKO!"' He screamed. Thrashed and moved but this is memory. A vision of the past. Not a nightmare he can just forget.

"HANAKO!"

This is a moment in his life that is forever engraved in his thoughts.

The man pulled Hanako out of her life pod. He can see the fear and shock on her face. He wailed and roared trying to break free of his pod, the stasis has already started shutting down his mim. The doors slowly closing as he gave one last thunderous yell as a bullet soared through Hanako's skull. Her blue mim blood splattering the steel hull.

Fenrir could do nothing.

The memory replayed over. And over.

The ungodly torture of seeing her dead, in a pool of her own blood. Every second.

So slowly did the images rewind.

The man walking up to her life pod.

His 3.5 millimeter pistol glaring menacingly in the darkness.

Her face…her beautiful face, so pained with fear as the devil pulled the trigger. Again. And again. And again.

And Xzavier, again, and again. Can do nothing but….

"Aaaahhhhhhh!"

Cry.

His tears mixed with the heavy rain as he kneel down. Broken in the middle of the base. In the middle of the dead bodies. Fenrir wailed to the unforgiving sky, his overdrive crackling sweetly with energy. Arms to his side, head bellowing up to whoever is listening.

She stood there. A few feet behind him, Irina stood. She stood and watched a man who'd really speak. And man whose emotions are as vast and cool as the sea. A man she sees as a comrade, a friend, break down so utterly and so completely.

She watched for as long as needed. Taking in the tears that rolled down his face in waves. She will stand there with her rifle to her side. Her finger long gone form the trigger. As the clock kept ticking thirty minutes past two am as a full three hours have passed by. She will stand there for as long as Fenrir needs her to be.

"For once I am glad I lost a bet." Vanham grumbled as the clock stuck two thirty five am. Three hours since Fenrir has been overdrived.

"Maybe he ran to Cauldros? To maybe contain the explosion." Nagi suggested looking at the map of Primordia. Trying pin-point Fenrir's location since his communicator is offline.

"Tch. Even overdrived he couldn't get as far as Sylvalum's doorway before he would blow." Vanham wanted to believe Irina had taken Fenrir out, but his own comm device shows the man still active.

Kentaro felt like sighing wouldn't match with his growing sense of unease. He looked through the previous privately record documents on the three failed three hour long overdrives.

"No one has lasted for three hours." Vanham mentioned coldly. "All three of those Mims blew up right in the ocean or on one the secret testing islands. We couldn't find any way to fix that little niggle, so we kept it in our pants."

Nagi hummed while the burly commander shook his head. "Either his mim is still active but his mind has shut down somehow or some dumb divine intervention."

"Then we must thank whatever God is watching us right now." Kentaro mumbled with some sick irony in his voice.

They both watched the red dot in bedrock base blip with its rhythmic tune.

"Or whatever devil that may using us as his toy." Vanham growled grimly.


End file.
